Once Upon a Parchment
by Aqua Alta
Summary: To cleanse your soul is to cleanse your mind. Alviss always believes in those words. Is he too late to remember them?


**_ONCE UPON A SINGLE PARCHMENT_**

**Author's Note:**

**A strange one-shot I worked out during my assignment. Don't ask. I hope this time Cherii-chan decides not to kill me and like this story instead.**

**Disclaimer: Do you see Al-niichan wandering around as the main character of MAR or—heaven helps me—a new whole series dedicated to him? If you do, it may mean that I own MAR.**

Pain.

"_Let's be friends…, Alviss-kun."_

"No…. Phantom….."

"_You are cursed. That is a fact you can never let go."_

"No, I have defeated him…. The curse…."

"_Is not yet gone. Look at your chest. Look. Look! LOOK!!!"_

"GO AWAY!"

"Al!"

Finally, fiery blue eyes snapped open in fear and shock. Alviss woke up with a jolt, sweat running down his half-naked body. Bell was sitting on his pillow next to him, eyes teary in surprise and concern. "Bell?" he managed to whisper harshly, sitting up as he ran a hand through his unruly jet-black hair.

"What happened, Al?" the fairy asked, staring at him. "You were screaming in your sleep! Was it a nightmare?"

He was taken aback at first, his hazy mind not yet registering with his surroundings. "Ah…, well, you can say that, Bell," he replied, smiling weakly. "Yeah. Just a nightmare."

'_It was just a nightmare….'_

He stared down at his bare chest. It was smooth, pale as porcelain even under the dim light of a nearby lantern, as unmarked as it could be. There was nothing there.

No tattoo in the form of fire.

He sighed heavily, letting himself fall onto the bed again. Bell had fallen asleep once again, dozing peacefully after knowing that her best friend was all right. He chuckled at the sight of his small childhood friend.

His body was not scarred. No, he was no longer tainted physically. The tattoo had been removed completely. Then, why wouldn't that dream stop? Why did it follow him still?

"_There is no use if your mind is still tainted, Alviss! The body will forget, but the soul and heart will not before the mind does!"_

Those were Gaira's words. He let his thoughts swim around the memory, taking in the full meaning of those words. Or trying to, to be honest.

Then, just as the first light of dawn hit the window of his rented room, the full impact hit his mind in full force.

He jumped out from his bed, landing swiftly on the floor. He managed to grab his dark blue bathrobe before he proceeded to the desk, sitting on the chair in determination. He took out a sheet of new parchment and dipped his finest quill into the ink.

_To cleanse your soul is to cleanse your mind._

His eyes blazed, and his quill touched the surface of the parchment.

_Once, when darkness descended from its resting place_

_Where clothes were festooned with the same blood lace_

_I stood there as a child, long ago_

_In the time when relief did not come and pain would not go_

He had never written a literary before, much less a poem. Yet somehow he could not contain himself. He despised his first four lines, yet at least the excruciating pain in his head was lessening already.

_Pale as light, yet dark as darkness_

_Came the leader, eyes red with bloodlust _

_Words that I knew I would bring to my grave in the dust_

_On me, a sign of curse and foulness_

A tear rolled down his cheek without him realizing, yet he knew that he was not grieving. He was relieving.

_Taking a journey alone, carrying a sin_

_Friends came and stayed, yet never once were told_

_For I did not want to lose my hold_

_None of them deserved the cruelty I had within_

'_Bell, Gaira-san, Alan-san, Danna-san, arigatou….'_

_History was repeated once again_

_Though I had too much to lose and little to gain_

_A lifetime bet was made, and light was restored_

_Along with it, also darkness I long abhorred_

The images were both vague and vivid, yet he pushed his way forward, not caring anymore.

_War and pain, remembrance of my marked sin_

_Yet this time, we were the ones who prevailed_

_And so it was saved, the loved kin_

_A stranger from another world was to be hailed_

_Darkness was defeated, lying as dust in my hands_

_Sorrow that it held was finally freed_

_The stranger of light returned to his own lands_

_And also lost in the process, what was called greed_

_Some friends parted, one stayed_

_Though the connection was never frayed_

_However, the nightmares followed_

_The erased sin, leaving my soul hollowed _

_Therefore, one dawn I sat down_

_As a stranger in just another new town_

_I took out my quill and poured down my lament_

_Once upon a single parchment _

It was morning when he finished. Bell sat up, glancing around. "Al?" she asked. "What are you doing?"

Alviss smiled. His first earnest smile since Ginta returned to his own world. Since the Second War Game ended. "Just something once upon a single parchment," he replied lightly, yet enigmatically.

When Bell demanded for more explanations, he chuckled and kept the secret to himself.

**XXX**

**That's all from me. Strange? Don't blame me. Blame those plot bunnies. Now, yay or nay?**

_Aqua Alta_


End file.
